The following letter was sent by ETT President John Smith to TDSB Director Donna Quan on September 9, 2014.

On behalf of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, I would like to express our continuing dismay at remarks and comments made by TDSB Trustee Sam Sotiropoulos. His comments concerning transgender people, questioning their existence and categorizing their identity as a “mental illness,” are offensive and possibly a violation of the TDSB Human Rights policy.

I request that the TDSB conduct an investigation to ascertain if these comments violate any policies or legislation, and, if they do, that the appropriate actions be taken.

Yours sincerely,

John Smith
ETT President

The original copy of this letter erroneously used the term “transgendered.” This has been corrected in the text above. We apologize for the mistake.